The four Democrats looking to replace former Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner will hit the debate stage Thursday night, offering voters and party delegates their first opportunity to see much of the field together before a new challenger is picked to take on incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, former state Senate President Troy Jackson, former Maine Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Nirav Shah, and former congressional aide Jordan Wood are scheduled to participate. The candidates were selected by News Center Maine for invitations because they each earned at least 20% of the vote in their previous primary bids. Maine Beer Company founder Dan Kleban also has his eyes set on the nomination, but did not participate in the primary.
News Center Maine will hold the debate at 7 p.m. in Portland, with a 90-minute broadcast televised statewide on WCSH 6 and WLBZ 2.
The debate will give the four candidates an opportunity to make their case before Maine Democratic delegates choose a nominee at a July 25 convention. The party faces a July 27 deadline to place a replacement candidate on the ballot after Platner withdrew from the race.
Platner, a Marine veteran and oyster farmer who won the primary after Gov. Janet Mills (D-ME) suspended her campaign, ended his bid following a sexual assault allegation that he has denied. His departure reopened a contest that Democrats thought had been settled, leaving the party with only weeks to select and rally around a new nominee.
The Senate hopefuls will take the debate stage just days after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot a man during an operation in Biddeford, thrusting immigration policy and federal law enforcement into the center of the race.
The shooting prompted demonstrations outside Collins’s Biddeford office and calls for an independent investigation. Jackson joined the protests outside Collins’s office, and he and Shah openly called for the abolishment of ICE. Bellows also participated in demonstrations and called for ICE to cease operations in Maine. Kleban, who has taken a centrist stance in the matter, attended a vigil in honor of the deceased Colombian immigrant Monday night, where Wood was also in attendance.
The four candidates, who each confirmed they would attend the debate to Politico, head to the stage with different political backgrounds and potential bases of support.
Bellows has served as secretary of state since 2021 and previously led the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine. She challenged Collins in 2014 but lost by a wide margin. She also did a stint in the state Senate after winning a district that favored President Donald Trump. Bellows most recently ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination and has emphasized her statewide experience and work on voting rights.
Jackson, a logger from northern Maine, previously served as president of the state Senate. He has long-standing ties to organized labor and the progressive wing of the party and received backing from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) during his gubernatorial campaign. He has also garnered support from Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), who previously backed Platner.
Shah became one of Maine’s most recognizable public officials while leading the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He later served as a senior official at the federal CDC before returning to Maine and running for governor. Shah, like Jackson, has positioned himself in alignment with the party’s progressive wing and framed his campaign platform as anti-establishment.
Wood is a former congressional aide who previously worked for Democratic Rep. Katie Porter of California. He most recently finished third in the Democratic primary for Maine’s 2nd Congressional District and has presented himself as a younger progressive who can continue the populist movement Platner built.
The candidates are likely to face questions about how they would unite Platner’s supporters with the party’s more moderate voters, distinguish themselves from Collins, and build a statewide campaign with less than four months remaining before Election Day.
MAINE DEMOCRATS VYING TO REPLACE GRAHAM PLATNER LASH OUT AFTER FATAL ICE SHOOTING
The debate will also offer the first clear look at whether Democrats want a nominee who maintains Platner’s progressive approach or one who can make a broader electability argument in a state where Collins has repeatedly survived well-funded Democratic challenges.
The Washington Examiner reached out to the four candidates for comment.